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The fire moved quickly through the house, a one-story wood-frame structure in a working-class neighborhood of Corsicana, in northeast Texas. Flames spread along the walls, bursting through doorways, blistering paint and tiles and furniture. Smoke pressed against the ceiling, then banked downward, seeping into each room and through crevices in the windows, staining the morning sky.
Buffie Barbee, who was eleven years old and lived two houses down, was playing in her back yard when she smelled the smoke. She ran inside and told her mother, Diane, and they hurried up the street; that’s when they saw the smoldering house and Cameron Todd Willingham standing on the front porch, wearing only a pair of jeans, his chest blackened with soot, his hair and eyelids singed. He was screaming, “My babies are burning up!” His children—Karmon and Kameron, who were one-year-old twin girls, and two-year-old Amber—were trapped inside.
Willingham told the Barbees to call the Fire Department, and while Dia…

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Sixteen years ago, Zulfiqar Ali left his native Pakistan for Indonesia in search of a new life. Last month, that life was on the verge of ending in front of a firing squad.

Mr. Ali has been on Indonesia’s death row since 2005, after he was convicted of heroin trafficking. A government-ordered inquiry later found that he was probably innocent. Still, in July, he was one of 14 convicts, most of them foreigners, who were taken to the prison island of Nusakambangan off Java’s southern coast to be put to death.

Minutes before they were to be executed, on July 29, Mr. Ali and nine other convicts were given a reprieve, for reasons the government has yet to explain. But four were shot dead as scheduled, including a Nigerian who supporters say was framed. And Mr. Ali, like the rest who were spared, remains condemned.

More than a year after Indonesia drew international censure by putting to death 12 foreigners convicted of drug crimes, the country has resumed a war on narcotics by way of executions — and has again put a spotlight on its profoundly flawed justice system.

Critics in Indonesia and abroad say those flaws go so deep that the country should not employ the death penalty at all. Researchers have found that many condemned convicts were tortured by the police into confessing, did not receive access to lawyers or were otherwise denied fair trials.

The resumption of executions means “that the government has ignored that there is something seriously wrong with our judiciary and law enforcers,” said Robertus Robet, a lecturer and researcher at the State University of Jakarta’s sociology department. He characterized the government as “trigger-happy.”

“When you execute someone, you execute the possibility of finding out the truth,” he said.

Amnesty International has denounced “the manifestly flawed administration of justice in Indonesia that resulted in flagrant human rights violations.” Similar concerns have been raised by the United Nations and the European Union, which sent a delegation to try to persuade Indonesia to spare inmates who were condemned to die last year.

Indonesia has long had the death penalty, but its use was sporadic in the years before President Joko Widodo took office in October 2014. Declaring drug abuse a “national emergency,” Mr. Joko denied clemency appeals from 64 death row inmates who had been convicted of drug crimes, most of them foreigners, and the government set a goal of executing all of them by the end of 2015.

That did not happen, but five drug convicts were put to death in January of that year, and eight more in April. (An Indonesian was also executed for murder in January.) Among the convicts executed in April, seven of whom were foreigners, were Andrew Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 34, Australians who were arrested in 2005 trying to smuggle heroin out of Bali, the resort island.

The men admitted their guilt, but their lawyers said the judge in the case was corrupt, having offered a lesser sentence in exchange for a bribe. Indonesia rejected appeals by the Australian government to spare them, and Australia withdrew its ambassador in protest.

Also executed in April was Rodrigo Gularte, 42, a Brazilian convicted of drug smuggling who had repeatedly been given a diagnosis of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Indonesian law forbids the execution of mentally ill convicts.

Dave McRae, a senior research fellow at the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne in Australia who has researched the use of capital punishment in Indonesia, said that the deficiencies in the justice system here could be found in most countries that still used the death penalty.

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NCRI - The Iranian regime's deputy prosecutor in the city of Qom, announced that the hands of three person accused of theft were amputated and at the same time four others accused of drug related crimes were executed in Qom central prison.
According to Iranian regime's radio and television news agency on September 21, deputy prosecutor called Younes Davoudi officially announced the above mentioned punishments.
It is noteworthy than in the month of June, two young men in Tehran accused of theft were sentenced by the 11th Branch of Tehran Province criminal court to have their fingers amputated.
“I was forced to resort to stealing to come up with money for my wife’s chemotherapy,” one of the accused said.
The defendants are Taghi, 30, and Parviz, 31, by their first names.
The state-run Rokna news agency interviewed one of the defendants whose wife is suffering from cancer:
Q: How many counts do you have?
A: Four counts of theft
Q: Why did you steal?
A: I didn’t have any money to…

The Islamic Republic of Iran is to be blamed for the inhumane sentence of 80 lashes Leila received, but the Norwegian authorities have their share of responsibility in this case and must be held accountable for it.

IRAN HUMAN RIGHTS (20 SEPTEMBER 2017): The Iranian asylum seeker Leila Bayat, who was deported from Norway on 8 March 2017, has received 80 lashes in Tehran.
During the investigation of her asylum case, the Norwegian authorities didn’t validate the documents regarding Leila Bayat’s flogging sentence and denied her asylum.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director and spokesperson of Iran Human Rights (IHR) said, “It is a shame that the authorities of a country like Norway, which has a reputation of respecting human rights and in particular women’s rights, didn’t provide a woman who had escaped flogging sentence with asylum and deported her back to Iran. In this case, Norwegian authorities didn’t fulfill their legal and human duty, and in the best case scenario, deported her to …

A man was hanged in public as a large crowd of people, including children, watched.
Iran Human Rights (SEPT 21 2017): A man by the name of Ismael Rangerz was hanged in public in the city of Parsabad (Ardabil province) on murder and rape charges.
According to various state-run news agencies, the public execution was carried out on Wednesday September 20 in front of a large crowd of people, including children.
The judicial process for the prisoner lasted for a total of three months before his execution was carried out.
Iran Human Rights is concerned that Ismael Rangers did not receive a fair trial.
The research of Iran Human Rights shows 33 people were hanged in public in Iran in 2016 and an audience of hundreds of people, including children, were present for most of these hangings.
Human rights activists and informed members of civil society have always severely criticized this issue.

An unidentified man was hanged in public on murder charges
Iran Human Rights (SEPT 21 2017): An u…

(JollofNews) – A few hours after delivering his maiden speech at the United Nations’ General Assembly, New York, President Adama Barrow of the Gambia has signed a treaty for the abolition of the death penalty as part of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The president also signed the treaty on the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the United Nations Convention on Transparency in Treaty-Based Investor-State Arbitration and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
“By signing of the treaties, the New Gambia continues to promote democracy and show the commitment of the state to protect lives of political activists,” a communique from the president’s office stated.
“This will remove fear and promote rule of law for citizens to express their civil and politica…

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed John Battaglia's claims of incompetence late Wednesday, clearing the way for the state of Texas to put the Dallas child killer to death more than 16 years after his crimes.
Over the past year, Battaglia's defense team and lawyers for the state have argued over whether Battaglia knows why he is to die and that his execution is imminent — Texas' two requirements for death row inmates to receive lethal injection.
In 2001, Battaglia shot his two daughters eight times in his Deep Ellum loft shortly after his divorce from his wife, Mary Jean Pearle. Pearle, in the midst of an attempt to get Battaglia's probation for assault revoked because her husband was harassing her on the phone, was on the phone with Battaglia as he shot their daughters, according to court testimony.
After killing the girls, Liberty and Mary Faith, as detailed in a 2002 Dallas Observer feature, Battaglia drove to an East Dallas tattoo parlor and got two ros…

The fire moved quickly through the house, a one-story wood-frame structure in a working-class neighborhood of Corsicana, in northeast Texas. Flames spread along the walls, bursting through doorways, blistering paint and tiles and furniture. Smoke pressed against the ceiling, then banked downward, seeping into each room and through crevices in the windows, staining the morning sky.
Buffie Barbee, who was eleven years old and lived two houses down, was playing in her back yard when she smelled the smoke. She ran inside and told her mother, Diane, and they hurried up the street; that’s when they saw the smoldering house and Cameron Todd Willingham standing on the front porch, wearing only a pair of jeans, his chest blackened with soot, his hair and eyelids singed. He was screaming, “My babies are burning up!” His children—Karmon and Kameron, who were one-year-old twin girls, and two-year-old Amber—were trapped inside.
Willingham told the Barbees to call the Fire Department, and while Dia…

Thailand's Supreme Court accepted the final appeal by Thai lawyers representing Myanmar migrants Win Zaw Tun and Zaw Linn, who have been sentenced to death for the murder of British tourists Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on Koh Tao island in Thailand.
The final appeal, which is 319 pages long, was submitted to the court on August 21 by the Thailand Lawyers Council.
In its appeal, the council pointed to evidence that Win and Zaw had been denied justice and fairness throughout the case and are innocent despite the death sentence, according to Myanmar embassy special representative U Aung Myo Thant, who is also a lawyer working on the case with the council.
He said they pointed out that Thai police violated standard police procedure in the collection of DNA evidence and phone records. The council said the police failed to carry out proper procedures in searching for DNA evidence, and they forced the two migrants to admit to the murder.
“We have submitted throughout this whole p…

Iran Human Rights has confirmed the execution of seventeen people in various Iranian prisons.
Iran Human Rights (SEPT 21 2017): A total of eight prisoners were reported hanged in various Iranian prisoners. Iranian official sources, including the Judiciary and the state-run media, have not announced these eight executions.
According to close sources, on Tuesday September 19, a prisoner was reportedly hanged at Khorramabad Central Prison on murder charges. The prisoner has been identified as Mohammad Haji Sabzali. Mohammad was reportedly arrested and sentenced to death six years ago. On the morning of Wednesday September 20, another prisoner was hanged at this prison on murder charges. The name of the prisoner is not known at this time.
According to the human rights news agency, HRANA, on the morning of Monday September 18, a prisoner was hanged at Broujerd Central Prison on murder charges. The prisoner has been identified as Hossein Dalvand.
According to the Kurdistan Human Rights …

A man who violently stole Sh16, a toothbrush and toothpaste faces the death penalty after his appeal was dismissed.
James Muchangi was sentenced to death by a magistrate’s court in 2010 and has since been fighting for his freedom. His appeals at the High Court and the Court of Appeal have flopped and sealed his fate.
On March 20, 2008, at about 5am, John Kanyingi was walking to a bus stage in Kahawa Wendani when two men armed with a panga and a piece of metal confronted him. They frisked his pockets and stole a black bag that contained a toothbrush, toothpaste and Sh16.
The robbers cut Kanyingi on the left side of the face below the eye. He later reported the incident at Kahawa Police Post and was issued with a P3 form.
On April 2, 2008, he was called by the police that two people had been arrested. The following day, the officers proceeded to Muchangi’s house and found Kanyingi's black bag hanging on the wall.
Muchangi and his accomplice were then charged in court. The co-ac…

Scott Dozier faces loss of prison privileges in last months of life if he discloses death manual details.
While Scott Raymond Dozier, 45, waits for his date with death in November at Ely State Prison, NV, the condemned inmate and his attorneys were granted approval in court on Thursday to review Nevada's execution manual, according to KNPR and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Eighth Judicial District Court Judge Jennifer Togliatti cautioned his lawyers, however, that she can sever Dozier's communication with people, outside of prison, if their client discloses prison information that is confidential and contained within the manual.
An agreement was worked out in court that permits Dozier and his lawyers to see portions of the execution manual that were previously redacted, the Review-Journal reported.
The manual's details are not available to the public. Judge Togliatti seeks to ensure that the inmate does not leak parts of the document to anyone - his fellow inmates, family…

DPN opposes the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally, regardless of the method chosen to kill the condemned prisoner. The death penalty is inherently cruel and degrading, an archaic punishment that is incompatible with human dignity. To end the death penalty is to abandon a destructive diversionary and divisive public policy that is not consistent with widely held values. The death penalty not only runs the risk of irrevocable error, it is also costly to the public purse as well as in social and psychological terms.The death penalty has not been proved to have a special deterrent effect. It tends to be applied in a discriminatory way on grounds of race and class. It denies the possibility of reconciliation and rehabilitation. It prolongs the suffering of the murder victim's family and extends that suffering to the loved ones of the condemned prisoner. It diverts resources that could be better used to work against violent crime and assist those affected by it. Death Penalty News is a privately owned, non-profit organization. It is based in Paris, France.Your donations to Death Penalty News DO make a difference.